A Preservation Compassfinding digital preservation partners and solutions

Overview30 min: Context and Survey Results

● Context and definitions● Survey results

60 min: A Preservation Compass conversation

● Open discussion

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Common Threats to Digital ContentYosh Ginsu, Unsplash.com

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http://www.dataone.org/sites/all/documents/L01_DataManagement.pptx

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Trio of challenges

● Technical

● Social

● Financial

Image: Gertrude Degenhardt, “Women in Music” (Kenny Gallery, Ireland)Baher Khairy, Unsplash.com

Technical Challenges

Growth of data (and proportional growth of preservation- candidate data)

If the Digital Universe were represented by the memory in a stack of tablets, in 2013 it would have stretched two-thirds the way to the Moon*

By 2020, there would be 6.6 stacks from the Earth to the Moon*

The Digital Universe is Huge

and Growing Exponentially

Technical Challenges (cont’d)

One bit change can render an entire object unintelligible

Technical Challenges (cont’d)

Obsolescence is swift and painful

Technical Challenges (cont’d)

The software that renders digital objects is in need of preservation attention, too!

Social Challenges

Speed of selection and description of material lags far behind growth of digital content

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Social Challenges (cont’d)

We cling to those that look like us (sometimes to our detriment).

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Financial Challenges

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Digital preservation is a new cost, not counterbalanced by reduction in any other cost

One institution’s view: MIT Library Planning

“Sustainable digital preservation is an important problem shared by the entire

scholarly community, and MIT should continue to build partnerships and provide

leadership to help solve the inherent technical, social, and economic issues in this

area. Digital stewardship is a collaborative, inclusive effort that includes creators,

users, champions, content managers, and preservers... Any sustainable vision for the

future of research libraries must include a commitment to the long-term stewardship

of the scholarly record.”

--Preliminary Report of the Institute-Wide Task Force on the Future of LibrariesPublished October 24, 2016, captured from https://www.pubpub.org/pub/future-of-libraries, November 23, 2016

What is Digital Preservation?

Library of Congress, http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/about/index.html, (November 26, 2016)

Ingest Format Validation Audit Storage Access

Repair Data Wrangling Fixity Checking Trust

Geographic Replication Metadata Testing Rights (etc...)

Digital Preservation is the active management of digital content over time to ensure ongoing access.

What is Digital Preservation? (cont’d)

Distributed Digital Preservation

emphasizes the importance of such

factors as content replication,

independence, and coordination for

ensuring the longevity of digital objects

Key: geographic distribution,

infrastructure heterogeneity,

organizational diversity

Survey says...Survey-results may suggest topics for further discussion

Discussion

Katherine Skinner, katherine@educopia.org

Chip German, cgerman@virginia.edu

END of ASERL Presentation

Additional information related to ASERL discussion(next)

Tools and Strategies Emergence of definitions, concepts, best practices, standards (last 20 years)

● NDSA levels of preservation ○ http://www.digitalpreservation.gov:8081/ndsa/working_groups/documents/Levels_v1.pdf○ Updates needed on format migration, software preservation and other components

● Getting to the Bottom Line: 20 Cost Questions○ http://metaarchive.org/cost-questions

○ Provides guidance on what questions need to be asked of potential service providers or collaborative partners

Tools and Strategies (cont’d)Pillar 1: Accept the inevitability of needing multiple solutions, and favor the collaborative ones

● Collaborations to avoid duplication of effort in preservation of published digital material

● Collaborations to achieve economies of scale in preservation of unique digital material

● Engagement in collaborative projects creates knowledgeable staff members rapidly and ensures up-to-date skills and understanding

● Collaborations should embrace all memory organizations○ Many may have limited resources (long-tail dilemma)

Tools and Strategies (cont’d)Pillar II: develop clear preservation policies/strategies that are connected to general stewardship planning unique to the institution

● Example: evolution of strategy at UVA from rigorously selective to more permissive, especially including material not fully processed

Tools and Strategies (cont’d)Risk Factor Examples (based on Kara McClurken presentation from UVA)

● Uniqueness or rarity● Not preserved (and not just stored) elsewhere● Difficulty of recreating (if digitized material, could it be re-digitized?)● Threat of loss of access

○ Website coming down○ Company or institution dissolving

Tools and Strategies (cont’d)Value Factor Examples

● Research value (high weight)● Importance as cultural heritage (high weight)● Institution-committed responsibility for content (high weight--examples include

promise to donor)● Documentation of rights status

Preservation Decision Tool

H

M

L

Risk

Low Medium HighValue

Solution 2 Solution 4

Solution 1 Solution 3

Tools and Strategies...Pillar III: maintain continuing management of your content in all preservation locations, while anticipating your institution’s disappearance

● Desirable capability: revise/update metadata without having to reingest the entire package of preserved material

● Ensure that your metadata includes your understanding of copyright status (http://rightsstatements.org/en/)

● Retain the capacity to delete

Hot Topics and Open Questions...● Funding (if we don’t figure this out, who will?)

○ RCM budgeting sometimes exposes true cost

○ The only way to use margin strategies is through multi-institutional collaborations to produce economies of scale (note “capacity” funding vs “content” funding)

Funding Models for Non-profits Policy innovator

Heartfelt connector Beneficiary broker

Beneficiary builder Resource recycler

Member motivator Market maker

Big bettor Local nationalizer

Public provider Taxer (additional category)

Hot Topics and Open Questions...● Funding

○ Selling general concept of digital preservation as good societal practice won’t stimulate funding at scale

○ Pushing digital preservation to audiences by making it about content for which they care deeply may

■ Still must make provisions for longtail (culturally important material with no current natural audience)

● Capturing ephemera○ Web archives○ Scale challenges description other than chronological

● Explosion of 3D data● Urgent need of software preservation

To do, or not to do...decision making and partnerships● The paralysis of uncertainty

○ Still in the earliest stages of development of strategies for digital preservation

○ Ethical bond between higher education-driven digital preservation initiatives means that each is alert to risks to the content of another

■ Likely to result in a self-healing system of higher education projects that assists in relocating content from any one that fails or dissolves

○ Once your data-driven analysis is complete, you will still have choices

Choose the collaborative projects best suited to your institution and circumstances, including in “personality.” Your choice will not be wrong

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